It is not a secret that the USHL’s Indy Ice have been battling with officials over the future of the team and its lease agreements.
The Indy Star is now reporting that an ECHL minor pro team will be announced and placed in the State Fairgrounds Arena that is currently undergoing $63 million dollars in renovations.
http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/2013/11/24/expansion-echl-team-coming-to-indy/3690949/
For quite some time now, officials have been spending money on foolish studies in what looks to be a concerted effort to bring minor pro hockey back while displacing the USHL team that has kept hockey in the area from failing completely. If not for the Indy Ice, hockey would have failed in the area years ago.
Why would it look as though the USHL is out? One sentence can say it all;
“The hockey team will be an anchor tenant at the Coliseum, which will also host IUPUI men’s and women’s basketball games. The remodeled venue will have a two-tiered seating capacity of 6,200 for hockey and 8,000 for other events.”
It is pretty clear they have moved on from the Ice or there would have been some mention of their current “anchor tnenant”. It doesnt take a genious to read between the lines.
So what happens now? Do the Ice relocate? Go dark? Get sold? No one is talking, but one USHL contact said that the expansion team in Madison may have been meant to fill the Indy departure all along.
